Amazon Affiliates
Amazon Affiliate Cookie Duration: The 24-Hour Window, Exceptions, and What Actually Gets Tracked
How long Amazon tracks your affiliate clicks, the 90-day Add-to-Cart exception, what breaks the cookie early, and how cookie duration differs from the commission window.
What is Amazon affiliate cookie duration?
When someone clicks your Amazon affiliate link, Amazon places a tracking cookie in their browser. The cookie duration is how long that cookie stays active — and any purchase made before it expires earns you a commission, even if the buyer didn't buy the specific product you linked to.
Amazon's standard affiliate cookie duration is 24 hours. If a buyer clicks your link at 2 PM on Monday and completes a purchase by 2 PM on Tuesday, you earn a commission on everything in that order.
The 90-day Add-to-Cart exception
There is one major exception to the 24-hour window. If a buyer clicks your link and adds the item to their cart within 24 hours, the tracking extends to 90 days from the cart addition date.
So the actual flow is:
- Buyer clicks your link → 24-hour cookie fires
- Buyer adds item to cart within that 24-hour window → tracking extends to 90 days
- Buyer checks out any time within those 90 days → you earn the commission
This is why "Add to Cart" CTAs in affiliate content often convert better than "Buy Now" — they lock in your attribution window even when the buyer isn't ready to purchase immediately.
What breaks the cookie early?
Three things end your attribution window before it expires:
- Another affiliate link click: If the buyer clicks a different affiliate's link before purchasing, the new cookie overwrites yours. Last-click attribution wins.
- Browser cookie cleared: The buyer clears cookies or uses private/incognito mode. The tracking cookie is gone, and Amazon has no record of the referral.
- Different device: Clicking on mobile and purchasing on desktop (or vice versa) breaks cross-device tracking unless the buyer is logged into their Amazon account on both devices.
Cookie duration vs. commission window — not the same thing
Many affiliates confuse cookie duration with Amazon's commission payout window. They are different.
| Term | What it means | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie duration | How long after a click Amazon tracks a purchase back to your link | 24 hours (90 days if added to cart) |
| Commission window | How long after purchase Amazon can claw back your commission for a return | Varies by return policy (typically 30–180 days) |
The commission window affects when your earnings are confirmed after a sale. If a buyer returns a product, Amazon reverses the commission — which is why large orders close to reporting periods can shift your actual payout. Cookie duration, by contrast, affects whether the sale is attributed to you at all.
Does cookie duration vary by product category?
No — the 24-hour cookie applies uniformly across Amazon's standard affiliate program (Amazon Associates). There is no category that gets a longer cookie window by default. The only extension is the Add-to-Cart 90-day rule described above.
Some third-party affiliate networks that sell Amazon products through their own links may have different tracking windows, but if you're using standard Amazon Associates links (containing tag=yourId-20), the 24-hour rule applies.
How to see your cookie-attributed earnings in Associates Central
In Amazon Associates Central, go to Reports → Earnings Report. You'll see ordered items split by whether the buyer purchased the linked product or a different product in the same session. Both count toward your commissions as long as they fall within the cookie window.
The "bounty" column covers qualifying programs (Prime sign-ups, Audible trials) that have separate attribution rules and are not subject to the 24-hour cookie.
Cookie duration and compliance: what affiliates get wrong
The cookie window affects earnings but doesn't change your compliance obligations. You still need a clear FTC disclosure on every piece of affiliate content regardless of whether the sale traces back to your cookie. Common mistakes:
- Claiming your link "locks in a deal" for 24 hours — this conflates the tracking window with a price guarantee, which it is not
- Telling viewers to clear their cookies then re-click to "reset" the window — this can be interpreted as gaming the attribution system and violates the Operating Agreement
- Promoting a product as "in stock" because it was when you filmed — if it goes out of stock the cookie fires but there's nothing to buy